with how much people on this page say "wahh they made this game better to play than the original so it's worse now!" i fear what the original game was.
(nearly) everything leading up to ending A is the most boring, default, tropey RPG shit ever and it really only reveals its hand like 12 hours in, at which point the game is basically over already. the gameplay is mostly just down to pressing one button a bunch of times, dodging when you need to, and occasionally pressing one of the shoulder buttons to do magic. you never feel like you're getting any more powerful throughout the entire course of the leadup to ending A since enemies generally take the same amount of hits to kill the entire game (save for ng+/ending B and onward) (also this is a problem that's somewhat mitigated by including like damage numbers or something, which is something i think was excluded on purpose to make the leadup less fun). thematically, most of the game it'll motion towards interesting ideas but it won't really do anything with them.
but i don't think that it's even that unpopular of an opinion that had the game not ended the way it did (and forgone any other endings) it would kind of suck ass. ending A recontextualizes everything and starting ending B sets you back halfway through the game with this recontextualization. this stretch of the game brings the quality of this game up so much, and your increased power accentuates the idea that the player character is just slaughtering with reckless abandon. it's so deeply dope but i still think it only partially makes up for the inherent issues in trying to make a game that is antagonistic to the player.
there's huge amounts of repetition between the first and second half (repetition that increases the more endings you go for). tons of parts of the main quests just require you to run back and forth between two areas. most of the game is constructed around two sets of macguffins, most of which just ask you to go to an area and kill the boss. pretty much all the sidequests are the most menial shit ever, and are just going to be skipped over by pretty much anyone. movement is flashy but it's still a pain to get anywhere. the hog (which you unlock by doing a sidequest that i would have skipped had I not had friends who had played before me) makes it better but i feel like the addition of the canal (which you can't get to very quickly anyways, is unusable for the seafront part of the second half, and doesn't include the majority of the main locations in the game that you have to revisit) is kind of spitting in the wound. there's tons of this stuff that is just waiting to be nitpicked but i'll stop here for now for the sake of this review not just being me complaining a bunch about a game I ultimately liked, but still.
hate to bring it up for the millionth time in the past month (and it might seem weird to bring it up if you haven't played it) but I think kane and lynch 2 handles "being antagonistic to the player" and "the main characters aren't good people" much better since (a) it's a total assault of all senses from the moment you start, and it really holds no punches and (b) the game can be beaten in about the same time it'd take to watch a modern marvel movie. the gameplay can be really repetitive but you feel tweaked out the entire time and by the end you're firing wildly at anything that moves with any guns you can manage to scrounge up, fighting with both the camera and the controls, which is a uniquely surreal experience that makes you feel like you're this insane deranged animal with a penchant for mindless killing.
but the one thing that game could never do is the reveal throughout the course of ending A. this game gets you to do the inane and insane slaughter without making it as obvious and the reveal is so god damn good. and then the game asks you to do it all again knowing that what you're doing is mindless slaughter! it's such a deeply risky and bold concept i have to give yoko taro a huge level of credit for executing it as well as it was. i do sort of wish i was more resilient towards the banal kind of repetition that is rife in rpgs of this kind since i wouldnt have spent the whole game waiting impatiently for the "good part to start"
anyways i don't really have anything else to add other than i'm probably going to play OFF and MOON soon so i guess games that vehemently decry violence is a theme this month
tdstr
2 years ago
with how much people on this page say "wahh they made this game better to play than the original so it's worse now!" i fear what the original game was.
(nearly) everything leading up to ending A is the most boring, default, tropey RPG shit ever and it really only reveals its hand like 12 hours in, at which point the game is basically over already. the gameplay is mostly just down to pressing one button a bunch of times, dodging when you need to, and occasionally pressing one of the shoulder buttons to do magic. you never feel like you're getting any more powerful throughout the entire course of the leadup to ending A since enemies generally take the same amount of hits to kill the entire game (save for ng+/ending B and onward) (also this is a problem that's somewhat mitigated by including like damage numbers or something, which is something i think was excluded on purpose to make the leadup less fun). thematically, most of the game it'll motion towards interesting ideas but it won't really do anything with them.
but i don't think that it's even that unpopular of an opinion that had the game not ended the way it did (and forgone any other endings) it would kind of suck ass. ending A recontextualizes everything and starting ending B sets you back halfway through the game with this recontextualization. this stretch of the game brings the quality of this game up so much, and your increased power accentuates the idea that the player character is just slaughtering with reckless abandon. it's so deeply dope but i still think it only partially makes up for the inherent issues in trying to make a game that is antagonistic to the player.
there's huge amounts of repetition between the first and second half (repetition that increases the more endings you go for). tons of parts of the main quests just require you to run back and forth between two areas. most of the game is constructed around two sets of macguffins, most of which just ask you to go to an area and kill the boss. pretty much all the sidequests are the most menial shit ever, and are just going to be skipped over by pretty much anyone. movement is flashy but it's still a pain to get anywhere. the hog (which you unlock by doing a sidequest that i would have skipped had I not had friends who had played before me) makes it better but i feel like the addition of the canal (which you can't get to very quickly anyways, is unusable for the seafront part of the second half, and doesn't include the majority of the main locations in the game that you have to revisit) is kind of spitting in the wound. there's tons of this stuff that is just waiting to be nitpicked but i'll stop here for now for the sake of this review not just being me complaining a bunch about a game I ultimately liked, but still.
hate to bring it up for the millionth time in the past month (and it might seem weird to bring it up if you haven't played it) but I think kane and lynch 2 handles "being antagonistic to the player" and "the main characters aren't good people" much better since (a) it's a total assault of all senses from the moment you start, and it really holds no punches and (b) the game can be beaten in about the same time it'd take to watch a modern marvel movie. the gameplay can be really repetitive but you feel tweaked out the entire time and by the end you're firing wildly at anything that moves with any guns you can manage to scrounge up, fighting with both the camera and the controls, which is a uniquely surreal experience that makes you feel like you're this insane deranged animal with a penchant for mindless killing.
but the one thing that game could never do is the reveal throughout the course of ending A. this game gets you to do the inane and insane slaughter without making it as obvious and the reveal is so god damn good. and then the game asks you to do it all again knowing that what you're doing is mindless slaughter! it's such a deeply risky and bold concept i have to give yoko taro a huge level of credit for executing it as well as it was. i do sort of wish i was more resilient towards the banal kind of repetition that is rife in rpgs of this kind since i wouldnt have spent the whole game waiting impatiently for the "good part to start"
anyways i don't really have anything else to add other than i'm probably going to play OFF and MOON soon so i guess games that vehemently decry violence is a theme this month